


In the Time After

by Windburn



Category: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, No Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-12
Updated: 2020-12-12
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:15:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28019130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windburn/pseuds/Windburn
Summary: *Spoilers for Echoes of Vengeance*A little self indulgent introspective bit of reflection for Scourge on his relationships and place in the galaxy, especially in regards to a certain Alliance Commander.
Relationships: Female Jedi Knight | Hero of Tython/Lord Scourge, Jedi Knight | Hero of Tython/Lord Scourge
Comments: 1
Kudos: 22





	In the Time After

**Author's Note:**

> My JK is a body type 3 light blue Togruta guardian badass (I like to kno what ppl's characters look like so there's that). Bruh I was like if y'all ain't gonna write the damn Scourge fics then I damn well will!!
> 
> also nobody proof read this so hold ur criticisms queens this some homemade artisanally hand crafted type of fic the flaws are a feature u_u

This far from the base the hush of wind through trees was on par with the distant roar of star engines. His boots crunched grass and soil as he approached the edge of a sunny glade, air crisp with an approaching cold season while it brushed against his bared skin. Up ahead the Jedi sat cross legged under a tree, shaded but dappled in slow moving kisses of golden sunlight that dripped like honey between the leaves. 

His chest ached and his jaw briefly tightened as he was nearly overcome with adoration for her.

Odello’s eyes remained the colorless silver he remembered from before being released from his cursed boon. He took comfort in that small familiarity as they rose to meet him. Wordlessly she gestured for him to join her and Scourge obliged, coming to sit at her side in the cool grass. He closed his eyes, sighing fiercely, and focused on dismantling the torrential whirlpool of feeling that had built within him throughout the morning. 

His return to wholeness made him strong. His passions were untamed and new limits untested. It made him fierce and unstoppable in battle but also careless. More than once he was swallowed up in rage and would come back to himself to find he was victorious but burdened with injury. Odello had grown irritated with his recklessness and had reminded him that tactics win wars, not madness. If he wanted to see his life’s purpose through, to truly erase the Emperor from the galaxy, he would need control of his returned abilities. 

It was with that in mind that they began these quiet retreats. 

She was Commander of the Eternal Alliance and was burdened with responsibility. It was rare Odello could chip away significant time to herself but what she could she offered to Scourge and with selfishness he stole her from everyone else. Jedi techniques to temper his mind and increase his control were grating to learn but Odello was no true warrior of Light anymore. The fight with Valkorian had turned her to something between and it showed not only in her philosophy as woman and leader but in her training exercises as well. She was patient with him and through her he was beginning to learn to be patient with himself. 

Taking a breath, Scourge centered himself and isolated the complications of deeper thought from the feedback of the world around him. His mind emptied and with measured breaths and determination he did not dissolve his passion but stepped back from it. 

Here, he felt the sun on his skin. 

Bird song and insect calls chirped all around, the small sound of leaves and branches scraping together and the distant rush of waterfalls wove through him. He could hear Odello peeling the fruit in her lap, the soft tearing of a thick skinned rind and how it filled the fresh air with an edge of tart citrus. Scourge focused on that, breathing deeply, and clearly picturing her light blue colored hands carefully breaking along the barrier of pith between the flesh and rind, gradually freeing it from its casing. Her breathing was just audible, a deep breath and small sigh not of exhaustion or melancholy but peaceful enjoyment of this moment. 

“Here.”

He opened his eyes and found her offering a segment of the fruit. Plucking it from her fingers he watched as she took her own piece and pinched the thin membranous skin and pulled it away, revealing bare flesh of the fruit. Bringing it to her mouth she sucked the flesh off the casing, scraping her teeth along one side as she did so. Scourge forced himself to look away, repeating her method on his own and nearly flinching at the burst of semi sweet across his tongue. 

They enjoyed each others company for a little while longer, neither feeling the pressure to fill up the quiet. He gradually felt Odello begin to lean against him, her cheek pressed to his shoulder. He needn’t check to know that her eyes were closed as her breathing gradually grew deeper and more relaxed until he was hard pressed to discern her from awake or not.

In this moment he found peace. 

Odello jerked violently, hand shooting out to grasp Scourge’s thigh sharply, when the alert on her holocom beeped. Groaning, she pulled out the device and checked it, rubbing her eyes as she read over whatever demanded the Alliance Commander’s personal attention. 

“What is it?” he demanded, body beginning to tighten in anticipation for a confirmation on T7’s mission to locate the lost ship. 

“Mandalore needs to speak with me. Damn, thought I could sneak a nap in, maybe drool on you again,” Odello said morosely. He settled somewhat, not quite rolling his eyes but it was a near thing. She noticed and spared him a half smile, using his shoulder to push herself up to her feet before stooping and grabbing his hand, pulling him up with her. Scourge followed, coming to stand at her side. She was a tall and strong bodied woman but even then it was only the highest tips of her montrals that made them equal in height. 

“It’s going to be okay. We’ll find them and stop this plague.”

“Every moment that passes that reality grows less likely,” Scourge said gravely. 

Odello folded her arms and the wind picked up, whipping fallen leaves across their boots and shifting the ends of her head tails as she turned and peered up into the sky. “I tried fighting fate, you know. This isn’t who I thought I’d be, or what I’d become. It never works,” she gave a tired little smile, looking back to him with her eyes that he had first met in a vision long before her birth, that he had aligned himself to long before he could be sure of the mind and soul behind that silver gaze. 

“The will of the Force is all that matters, and it wills the Emperor dead.”

# ...

He was awake, or rather back secluded to his own consciousness, and lingering in the glow of their accomplishment.

Tenebrae, Vitiate, Valkorian, and every aborted aspect of the Emperor were finally destroyed. His legacy of destruction fulfilled and with his returned wholeness of self Scourge had not felt such a vicious and powerful sense of triumph. He only basked for a few moments before opening his eyes and looking to the bodies around him. Satele’s students were beginning to awaken, the ones that survived. Small pained whimpers and grunts pierced the quiet of the ship’s hold as they struggled to sit up after so long of having their bodies waste away while their minds were under siege. 

The woman who had coupled with Valkorian and the last living child Valkorian sired were quickest to come entirely back to themselves, looking to one another with relief and pain intermixed until it was only grief. 

Theron moved to Satele’s side and began to check her vitals with a fierce expression that only minutely relaxed when he found her still satisfactorily alive, though yet to awaken. Climbing to his feet Scourge noticed Kira was already up and moved from where she had guided them into meditation, and his heart was struck with ice when he saw her kneeling over the fallen shape of the Jedi. 

“Why hasn’t she awoken?” he demanded, rushing to kneel at Odello’s side. A few of the students groggily flinched away from him but Kira didn’t react, pulling her hand back from the Togruta’s high brow where she’d straightened the ornamentation of Odello’s akul-tooth headdress. 

“She’s fine. I can feel her and Satele are still connected,” Kira said. Scourge glanced back at the grandmaster, frowning hard. Theron shifted minutely to block his glare. 

“So, the galaxy didn’t end. I take it everything worked out?” Theron asked carefully. 

“Yes,” Kira sighed with a relieved smile, “somehow, yes. But not without a little help from friends.”

Those that were able bodied enough helped the still physically unwell Jedi students back to the shuttle. Scourge elected to carry Odello himself before anyone else attempted to do so, ignoring the wary looks Valkorian’s spawn and Theron Shan gave. The mother, Senya, arched a brow to her son at his hawkish watching and gave a small huff of amusement. Many had come to care for the Alliance Commander. 

The shuttle was cramped and the students took up the majority of seating, leaving the rest to occupy any spare space. T7 rocked excitedly at their approach, circling them and whistling queries about mission success and everyone’s health. Kira eased his worries with a quick explanation of events, shaking her head and laughing by the end of it. 

“It doesn’t sound real. He’s dead forever and I can just say that now and it’s true, not just some wild wish,” Kira smiled broadly and her beauty shined in the tempered joy filling her eyes. Scourge settled into a corner of the craft, settling himself down and leaning Odello against his chest as Theron and the Tiralls began preflight checks. In his arms Odello hummed slightly and turned, cheek pressing against the angled armor plate of his collar. He readjusted her with care so that she rest against the rough fabric of his armor rather than the pointed plating. 

It had only been weeks since they had found one another again. It had been a tumultuous period of comfort where each day he felt ripped between volatile states of near madness brought on by unfamiliar emotion. If he wasn’t furious and fearful of the Emperor’s plague then he was being likewise overwhelmed by the sheer passion the very sight of Odello brought forth in him. 

She was different now. Time and circumstance had made her older, more in mind than in body, though fine lines had deepened around her eyes and small freckles of sun damage freckled the sky blue of her skin. And how blue she was. He found himself watching her sometimes, without a single thought in his mind but an admiration and growing obsession with the pleasure that gazing upon her brought. 

The Jedi was no softer for all her years of leadership. It had sharpened her mind and aggressiveness of assertion. Something of her nature had always been compromised by the Dark but she never allowed it to overcome her. This duality had been forced into becoming strength in the final push to defeat Valkorian, and how strong she was. He could all but taste her power now. Her time with Valkorian had changed her connection to the Force, turned her into something unmatched and intoxicating. 

And she had welcomed him back to her side and he found reciprocation for the madness of emotion. She was the source and solace for so much of these new troubles. 

“How are we doing over here?” Kira asked softly, taking a seat against the hull beside them. The shuttle was quiet, an exhausted liminal moment of rest after an incomparable event. Some of the students had fully awoken and spoke intermittently. The occasional hushed word drifting from the mother and son, but always the hum of the engines mellowed away the low murmurings of all. 

“She is still not awake,” Scourge rumbled, arm unconsciously tightening around the Jedi’s waist.

Kira gave him a pitying smile as if embarrassed for him, “she’s okay. Just her and Satele having a word, I think. Probably more than one after all of this.” She raised her chin, nodding, “she doesn’t seem that upset, right?”

“I am well aware I am being drooled on,” Scourge sighed, sure to keep his face stone cold even as he derived small pleasure at making Kira laugh. They were often times at odds with one another whether in method or philosophy but they had a certain respect for one another built on years of cooperation. They made a good team and had always overcome their differences eventually. She was of the few he would count as a friend.

They fell into quiet after that. Plans were made around them to escort the students and Satele back to Coruscant while they were still too vulnerable to move on their own. Kira and Scourge were set on the task, the Sith and Jedi Knight more welcomed in Republic space than the Zakuulan war criminals and a defected intelligence agent. Kira pulled her knees up, resting her arms atop them as she leaned fully back against the hull, her eyes fixed forward. 

“So…you did what you set out to do. Killed the Emperor, saved the galaxy from imminent destruction, yadda yadda. Any thoughts on what’s ahead?” she asked tentatively but without judgment or presumption. 

It was a question he had been asking himself in the still of night or in the creeping moments of self reflection that had begun to emerge since his mortality returned. He had promised his mission would be accomplished and it had, yet still this felt unreal. Any moment he would wake up back in Satele’s mind, all of this a cruel mockery produced by the Emperor’s tricks, but that was not the truth. They were victorious and finally his vision that had drawn him to Odello to begin with, that had in parts ruined and remade his unnatural life, that had afforded him friendship and purpose and so many worse and better things – it was all over. Going forward he was without anchor, free of everything but is own will. 

His grasp on the Jedi curled further firm. 

“You really care about her,” Kira said so terribly quietly, the compassion and care in her making Scourge stiffen. He kept himself still, containing the desire to use his bulk to block Odello from those around them as if to hide an open wound from a predator. 

“It is… difficult, for me. To feel this way,” he said carefully. “That being so does not change that I have found a place and people that are important.” He pressed the words out reluctantly, ever unsure of their truth once spoken. As if it was a secret with himself broken once shared. A light slap to his bicep and he frowned down at the Human woman. 

“Glad to hear you’ll be sticking around then. I might actually miss you if you left,” she smirked, “but I would have understood, you need your space.”

Scourge groaned, “ _enough_.”


End file.
